Letter to the Editor: This is discrimination against Muslims

Seems Del. Todd Gilbert is busy trying to close Virginia’s borders to any Syrian refugees. I guess he has forgotten that another Virginian, James Madison, made sure that the Constitution gave such power over our borders to the federal government, not the states.

Regardless, Gilbert and anyone who supports closing our borders to Syrian refugees is demonstrating unacceptable weakness and capitulation. He might as well raise the white flag of surrender to ISIL/ISIS, the Salafist Takfiri impostors posing as Muslims under some ancient myth that seeks to have the apocalypse fought in their so-called caliphate. They want us to discriminate against Muslims, and Gilbert and the rest are carrying out their wishes.

They want a holy war. Perhaps Mr. Gilbert does, too. Regardless, he would do better trying to find a way to keep our rural hospitals from going under because he won’t support expanding Medicaid to 400,000 Virginians, than by expressing such toothless, demagogic bigotry feeding hatred among us.

I’m afraid to ask what he thinks we should do with the 24 Syrian refugees already settled in Virginia.